NC Register portal reports on a 2026 Mass in Belfast where Jesuit Bishop Alan McGuckian celebrated an inquest verdict that declared five Catholics, including a priest, were “unlawfully killed” by British soldiers in 1972. The article presents the victims as innocent martyrs and frames the legal proceeding as a restoration of “dignity” and “justice.” The Jesuit bishop’s eaglicization of individuals linked to terrorist organizations, coupled with the article’s failure to address the moral complexities of the situation, reveals the neo-church’s systematic inversion of Catholic teaching on just war, legitimate authority, and the moral duty of states to protect their citizens from armed insurrection.
The NC Register article presents the Springhill/Westrock shootings of July 9, 1972, as a straightforward narrative of innocent victims slain by trigger-happy British soldiers. The victims are described in sympathetic terms: Father Noel Fitzpatrick as a priest “going to the assistance of others,” Patrick Butler as “a father of a young family,” and the three teenagers as “wholly innocent” children. The inquest verdict, delivered by Belfast High Court Judge David Scoffield, is portrayed as a triumph of truth and justice, with the Jesuit bishop declaring it “restores dignity to the deceased.” This narrative, however, omits critical context and raises profound moral and theological questions that the neo-church, in its characteristic fashion, refuses to engage.
The Moral Duty of the State and the Right to Self-Defense
The first and most glaring omission in the article is any acknowledgment of the state’s moral duty to protect its citizens from armed violence. The shooting occurred during a period of intense IRA activity, with a ceasefire having just broken down. The British Army’s position, as noted in the article,
Source:
Inquest Finds Priest and 4 Catholic Civilians Shot by British Troops ‘Unlawfully Killed’ (ncregister.com)
Date: 14.05.2026